Joust

Joust is a card game for two players. The following description is copied from the Word document below.

Materials

• A deck of 52 standard playing cards
• A surface on which to lay exposed cards
• (Optional) A notepad and pencil to write down targets and totals

Gameplay

Players can have exposed and hidden cards in their hands; exposed cards should be laid in front of players, not held. Played cards may be put in front of exposed cards.

To begin the game, shuffle the deck, have one player choose red or black, and draw a card; they attack first if their choice matches the top card. Set that card aside and deal three hidden cards to each player.

Players alternate between attacking and defending in rounds.

On each round, the attacking player announces a target number, then:

1. The round total is set to 0.
2. If either player has all three cards in their hand exposed, they may put one of those cards at the bottom of the deck and draw a replacement.
3. The defending player plays a card from their hand or their exposed cards. They must add it to the round total if the round total is less than the target, or subtract it if the round total is greater than the target. (Aces have value 1, number cards have the shown value, and jacks, queens, and kings have values 11, 12, and 13, respectively.)
4. If the total is equal to the target number, the attacking player wins the round.
5. Otherwise, the attacking player plays a card from their hand. They can choose whether to add or subtract its value from the total.
6. If the total is equal to the target number, the attacking player wins the round.
7. If both players have played all of their cards, the defending player wins the round.
8. The attacking player may forfeit. If they don’t, return to step 3.

When the attacking player forfeits, their opponent takes all their played cards as points. They then draw that many cards from the deck, and the round ends.

When a player wins a round, they take all of their opponent’s cards (whether played, exposed, or hidden) as points. Their opponent then draws that many cards from the deck, and the round ends.

 When a round ends, all cards played in that round that are not taken as points are returned to their players’ hands as exposed cards.

If a player collects 10 cards as points, they win the game.